I was attempting a high key shoot. obviously did it wrong. the part that really bothers me..is the Light Spill on the hair. Any Suggestions?
This photo is completely untouched except for cropping.
Don.

Also the ratio of the lite will be hard to get right between the stool and the background with out making her over exposed. I am looking forward to what others have to say about this image. I am always looking for info like this myself.

Mike at the time I shot this I used two lights with umbrellas its all I had, however Im going to reshoot this I purchased a backlight and barn door for one of my strobes so I can control light spill a little better. I think had I blocked the background light better I wouldnt have gotten the spill on the model..but then again that would block any High Key attempt on the foreground area. Riddle me this.
Don.

Generally the light set up for high key is the model and the background each have their own lights. I set up the background (usually) first and get it set. Usually I set it at about 1 stop over what I plan to shoot the model at. If I'm using f8.0 for the model, I'll set the backdrop at about f11. Obviously this needs two lights minimum and metered separately.

The barn doors is what you want (or something similar) to keep the background light from spilling onto the model. Also as said before, it helps to move the model further away from the background.

From looking at the shot you posted, it looks to me more like lens flare; that is some light (probably the background light) is hitting the lens. I use the barn doors and a lens flare guard and sometimes a gobo (piece of cardboard or foam held between the light and the camera to keep the light off the camera).

Don't go too much over the one-stop difference or you're liable to get lens flare from the background itself.

Hope this helps, keep shooting!
(I would have put an example up, but I don't have any in my portfolio at present, sorry...)
Sean

Hi,
The trick to this is to create at least a (3 is better) two stop difference between the highlights in the background and the subject. If you have enough lighting equipment, creating this ratio between subject and background is easy. At least two heads pumped into the bakground at about 45 degrees from both sides of the background, being careful not to let these lights fall on the subject and then using umbrellas or softbox to illuminate your subject. A shoe string version could be acheived by pumping all your lights into the background and using reflectors to light your subject. The problem to this is that the edges of the subject are sometimes blown out, but using silver reflecctors can help here, reducing the difference in exposure between subject and back ground.

I would suggest starting with headshots first and then working 1/2 and them 3/4 lenght before going full length as it gets progressively harder to keep your background lighting even

Perhaps your biggest friends in the studio are flags. Remeber to use them. You've got to flag to eliminate unwanted spill from your heads.

Another issue is to remember to use a lens shade when shooting against brightly reflective backgrounds (ie white seamless) to improve contrast unless you want a slightly washed-out look (which CAN be used to good effect).

This here is a "true" high-key look that nevertheless has some problems. Though I suspect what you were looking for is a full-contrast subject against a white background like you see so often in catelogs. In that case, it help to move the model further away from the background as some have suggested. That keeps the background from acting as a reflector spilling fill on the outlines (particularly shoulders) of your model.

The spill on the hair looks more like lens flair than spill on the hair. You might want to use a lens bellows or some other device to insure none of the spill is getting to the lens. I found, when shooting High key, with all the light bouncing around, a lens bellows was invaluable.

There is some how ever vary little mid tone contrast may work it out but what ever you do it has to be vary and I mean vary little the over all shot is outstanding as is toning down the orange paints and top may help over all.

Let me touch on a couple things that might help you out. first off..with the background being grey..your back lighting is not hot enough...go hotter...there should in fact be 3 stops diff between the front and back. A good approach is getting the background to f-16 and the model at f-8. she is wwwwaaayyy to close to the background. You need to keep her off far enough to keep ambient light from spilling onto her. Another thing is noticed is your position with regards to your main light. You need to be as close (under works well) to the main light source as you can. another thing is to raise your f stop until you can "blow out" the background enough to make it white. DO NOT change your shutter speed..strangely enough...doing this will not affect the exposure for the model..dont ask..its a mystery to probably most people. I have set up a "high key" ligting using two lights and a reflector. With the stobes..you can use ducktape and a manilla (? spelling) folder to act as a makeshift (barn door) to keep excess spill light out...